ORGANOVO RISES ON ‘BIOPRINTING’ PROGRESS

Success of company’s ‘bioprinted’ liver tissue has attracted interest

Shares of Organovo Holdings rose as much as 16 percent Tuesday after the San Diego company released its quarterly earnings and reported progress with its “bioprinting” technology for producing human tissues.

Shares pulled back later in the day to close at $9.36, up 3.7 percent for the day.

The development-stage company lost $10.4 million in the second quarter, or 14 cents per share. In the second quarter a year ago, it earned $38.5 million, or 87 cents per share. The profit a year ago was mostly because of a one-time accounting change related to outstanding warrants.

Organovo said it has advanced technologically and financially in the quarter. The company completed a $46.6 million secondary offering on Aug. 7 and has expanded its research collaborations. And in late October, the company said its bioprinted liver tissue has continued to produce key liver functions for 40 days.

Organovo expects to begin selling a liver toxicity test in 2014, Keith Murphy, Organovo’s chief executive, said in a statement on the earnings.

Normal liver tissue is next to impossible to grow in lab cultures. Organovo’s bioprinting technology places various kinds of cells next to each other, similarly to how they exist in the body. The technology was adapted from inkjet printing.

Organovo shares have attracted investor interest because the stock kept going up during the turbulence of the partial government shutdown, said John McCamant, editor of the Medical Technology Stock Letter. Shares rose from $5.90 on Oct. 11 to $9.03 on Monday, up about 53 percent.